Korean independence movement

The Korean independence movement (29 August 1910-15 August 1945) was a Korean nationalist armed resistance movement that waged war against the Japanese rulers of Korea from its annexation in 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945. The movement launched a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea, with local resistance culminating in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which was crushed and sent Korean leaders to flee into China. In China, Korean independence activists built ties with the Chinese Kuomintang government, which supported their exiled Korean Provisional Government. At the same time, the Korean Liberation Army, which operated under the Chinese National Military Council and then the KPG, led attacks against Japan. Korean "patriotic assassins" had successes such as the murder of Governor-General Ito Hirobumi during the annexation, the assassination of Shanghai garrison commander Yoshinori Shirakawa on 26 May 1932, and several guerrilla assaults on the Imperial Japanese Army, using bases in Manchuria and China to wage a protracted war of resistance against the Japanese occupiers.

Despite the sacrifices of the Korean guerrillas, the Allied Powers of World War II only agreed upon eventual Korean independence after their conference at Cairo in 1943, and neither the Western Allies nor the Soviet Union could come up with a decision on the government of Korea after the war's end. In August 1945, the Soviet Red Army pushed the Japanese out of Manchuria and invaded parts of northern Korea, with the communist resistance leader Kim Il-sung becoming the Soviet puppet leader in Pyongyang. The Red Army occupied North Korea, while, following Japan's surrender in August 1945, the US Army occupied South Korea. Korea was de facto divided between American and Soviet zones, and neither the communist government in Pyongyang nor Syngman Rhee's provisional government in Seoul recognized the other as the legitimate government. This dispute would lead to the Korean War in 1950, and Korea would remain divided for decades to come.